Fortunately, a lot of smart people have done it before, and they have sound advice to share with budding entrepreneurs.

We pulled the best quotes from recent blog posts, conferences, and interviews that can help startups at every phase, whether they're still deciding what to launch or figuring out how to scale.

Here's the truest, most timely startup advice from business stars like Pinterest's Ben Silbermann and Y Combinator's Paul Graham.

On deciding what to start: "Facebook, I didn’t start to ‘start a company.’ It was mostly just through wanting to build it and having it be this hobby and getting people around me excited. It eventually evolved into a company. But I never understood the psychology of wanting to start a company before deciding what you wanted to do. Explore what you want to do before committing." - Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and co-founder of Facebook

"If you are thinking of starting a non-transactional consumer startup, be aware that you are entering what is perhaps the most competitive sector in tech in the last decade….ten million users is the new one million users." -- Chris Dixon, Partner of Founder Collective and founder of Hunch

On the stress of running a company: "As a startup CEO, I slept like a baby. I woke up every two hours and cried." -- Ben Horowitz

Owen Thomas, Business Insider

On work-life balance: "If you do not prioritize friends, family, loved ones, pets, plants, hobbies while working on a start-up, they will all decay and all you will be left with is a startup." - Ted Rheingold, VP Social of Say Media and founder of Dogster, Inc.

Ted rheingold via Medium

"The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry. I have an awesome husband, and we're 50/50." - Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook

AP

On knowing when to fundraise: "You want to grow your business, but sometimes you have to look at your business and realize you're handicapping yourself. You get to the point where you realize you're sufficiently holding back the business by not getting funding." - Alexis Tryon, co-founder of Artiscle

On how much to fundraise: "When you don't have any money, you get really good at making money. When you have a lot of money, you get really good at spending money." - Glen Coates, CEO and founder of Handshake, paraphrasing entrepreneur Jason Fried

On celebrating the fundraise: "Don’t congratulate people for raising money. That was never the goal. The goal is building a successful and meaningful business. When people raise money, instead of congratulating them, wish them luck. Their work is just getting started." -- Ben Kaufman, CEO and founder of Quirky

"I'm concerned a little bit with the culture of celebrating the fundraise. My dad taught me that when you borrow money it's the worst day of your life. What I'm looking for are people who are not caught up in the excitement. Even though I'm a hype man myself, I like the practicality of it all. People who understand how to turn a profit. At the end of the day, this is still business so I'm looking for real practical knowledge of how to actually make money, not necessarily raise it." - Gary Vaynerchuk, investor and CEO of Vayner Media

On competition: "Every successful startup goes through four phases in the eyes of competitors. First, they ignore you, because you're tiny and irrelevant. Then they ridicule you, because you're making them nervous. Then they freak out and try to kill you. Then, eventually, they try to buy you." - Henry Blodget, CEO of Business Insider

On growth: "I think the thing that surprised me the most in starting a company, after reading about, 'Facebook hits Harvard and gets 95% penetration in two weeks,' and 'Instagram gets to 1,000,000 people,' is that it can take a really, really long time to build things that are worthwhile." - Ben Silbermann, CEO and co-founder of Pinterest

On tough, economic times: "The startups that really get hosed are going to be the ones that have easy money built into the structure of their company: the ones that raise a lot on easy terms, and are then led thereby to spend a lot, and to pay little attention to profitability. Don't be that startup. If you've raised a lot, don't spend it; not merely for the obvious reason that you'll run out faster, but because it will turn you into the wrong sort of company to thrive in bad times." - Paul Graham, Co-founder of Y Combinator

On working for a startup: "EVERYONE is replaceable. You are NOT special and there is guaranteed someone better than you on this planet. [Getting fired] stings the person WAY more than the company. I thought every day that the company missed me but I’ve learned they just keep going on with business. AND (UN)FORTUNATELY most businesses get better." - Noah Kagan an early Facebook employee whose firing cost him $100 million

On starting a second company: "How can you as an entrepreneur that’s had success, has a reputation, ever build the courage to go and do something again? There’s a sort of fear of launching something and failing. I had to decide I am going to try to go the road less traveled and just be an entrepreneur that’s willing to go back and start things from scratch.” - Sean Parker, CEO and co-founder of Airtime

On not getting cocky: "It’s easy to get excited and arrogant when things are going well but it is important to remember that success is very fragile. Digg sold for $500K after being worth $200 million just a few years ago. In the same time period, RIM, maker of the Blackberry, lost 95% (!) of its value. There is continual disruption in our industry and you are likely to fail if you get complacent or stop evolving." - Jonah Peretti, CEO and co-founder of BuzzFeed